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SONAR 5 Receives Editor's Choice
Press Release
2005-11-16

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The first review is in and SONAR 5 Producer Edition is a huge hit with Computer Music magazine, receiving their Editor's Choice, Performance, and Value for Money awards. In addition, SONAR 5 Producer Edition received a "9/10" overall rating. You can buy the Winter 2005 issue of Computer Music at fine music retailers to read the entire review. Below are some highlights:

Value: "The new version of SONAR packs some serious power. Cakewalk seem hell-bent on giving their users everything they could ever need in one package, and with a little help from their friends at Roland and rgc:audio, they've managed to include some new toys that will have their competitors scrabbling to catch up."

Instruments: "SONAR's own compliment of instruments has grown with each new version of the program, so it's no surprise to find that version 5 comes loaded with a selection of new synths, samplers, and more."

Loop support: "SONAR has always been ahead of the game when it comes to loop support...Cakewalk have now added RXP, a REX player. This simple instrument can play back not just REX2 files, but also SF2 loops. Pretty handy, we think."

V-Vocal: "We have to confess being blown away by the new V-Vocal processing...the fact that V-Vocal resides in SONAR makes it a lot more convenient than either Melodyne or V-Synth. It's going to be a challenge not to overuse this one."

Perfect Space: "V-Vocal alone makes it worth SONAR 4 users paying the upgrade price, but Cakewalk have also been so good enough to toss a convolution reverb into the pot. Known as Perfect Space, this is a real-time impulse-based reverb that comes stocked with excellent presets...absolutely incredible."

MIDI: "MIDI has been given a lot more attention in general this time around. There's 'inline MIDI'—this displays MIDI notes and controller information in the track pane—and the piano roll has been given a few tweaks that ease the processes of step-entry and MIDI editing. Cakewalk have never forgotten their roots in MIDI sequencing, and they continue to serve the MIDI musician even in these audio-centric days."

Overall: "We were shocked and delighted to discover a program that brings some serious new professional features to the table. Very few DAWs are this complete...upgrade is compulsory."